They lean in and meet the spear. Its head strikes Jade’s breastplate, off-side, and the breastplate does not yield— but the momentum, the step forward, drags the head down to the hip, where it lodges. They reach out and seize the spear’s haft, and for a moment—

[i]I will not sacrifice my pack. That was the thought that consumed Jade’s cognition. Too attached, bringing them a mistake, her responsibility; using them callously too terrible to bear. But now there is a spearhead in their hip and she is having to try and shield Dolly from the worst of the feedback and it was her fault, she failed to hold Dolly as the most important again, again, her Dolly, she should have let every drone smash to pieces before she let Ksharta Talonna land a blow on her Dolly. Under her hands, Dolly is panicking, eyes wide, heart racing, unable to speak. Failed her, failed her, failed her! Dolly’s grip is made to tighten on the haft, groaning under her fingers, as Jade’s fury at herself narrows into a vicious point.[/i]

Jade is agitated all around Dolly, who feels the spear like the bite of an ant, but one of the really big ones, throbbing and insistent, or like Jade’s talons when Dolly reassures her she wants them, and why did she lean into the movement? She just wanted— it’s just that Talon sounded so excited, and Jade was pushing her forward, and Dolly wasn’t [i]thinking[/i], she was just blushing and happy and now she’s let Smokeless Jade Fires down, she’s already cost them an advantage by not being good enough, by not doing exactly what Jade wanted her to do, by letting Talon’s little kitten enthusiasm get to her head, oh no, oh no no no, she bites down and slumps into Jade’s guiding hands and resolves to do what she’s told, and just what she’s told.

[i]Dolly, in pain, slumps. Jade, screaming inside her thoughts, cups her firmly, her beautiful arms, her lolling head, her perfect curves, and pushes her to move as much as she can. She could twist the spear out of Ksharta Talonna’s hands, use her idol as a weapon of leverage, but she cannot put Dolly through that. Not her Dolly. She pushes forward, feels the resistance, panics, tugs back. Dolly loses her balance; Jade helps her down as gently as she can, cushions the fall, but they’re down.[/i]

Pain is an important part of life, Dolly thinks, ridiculously, laid out on her butt, half-dunked in a stream. The body tells you that you are at risk of causing damage to itself. It’s one reason why some degree of pain was a benefit in mech feedback; it tells you what you can’t put stress on. If she puts all her weight on this leg, it risks buckling, lines disconnecting, causing cascading structural damage. Pain also produces relief, and Dolly found herself wishing that Jade’s hands would… do something. Spank her a little. Squeeze. Make her feel like she’s been punished and then forgiven, not this constricting, swirling agitation.

Then the spearhead lifts her chin, like in [i]The Two Cliffs,[/i] and her treacherous heart beats faster, her thick thighs squeezing together just a little more firmly as she’s forced to look up that spear at the enthusiastic Talon, and she [i]is[/i] a kitten, isn’t she, just this big ball of energy and exhilaration, and oh no she’s been downed, whatever could happen next? Maybe… no… Jade would never stand for it… but…?

Oh, just imagine it, Dolly’s treacherous heart whispers. Listening to Jade with muffler code clamped over her output, wrapped up in cords together, humiliated in front of the audience as Talon’s over-eager paws accidentally undo Jade’s breastplate harness and it comes crashing to the arena floor, and in the divine world of the feedback, Dolly’s dress would come undone—

No, that’s why they can’t. Humiliation is for Dolly. Smokeless Jade Fires demands glory, on her terms.

[i]”The first hit is free,” Jade says, clamping Dolly’s hand just behind the spearhead again. Divinity is presentation. The faithful need to see what they believe. “Come here and I’ll make you pay for the second.” She tugs, furiously, and the spear’s head rams into the riverbed, and Ksharta Talonna comes down, down, d—

Ah.[/i]

And before Jade can think to stop it, the obvious metaphor plays out in her world; Dolly finds herself pinned underneath the hot, panting, simulated young Talon, eyes looking up pleadingly as she blushily mumbles, ears low, aware of just how, how much this reminds her of treacherous thoughts she’d already had about Angela…

[Smokeless Jade Fires and Dolly [i]Stagger[/i] together, giving Talon a critical opportunity to exploit. They also hit a Fight with Grace on a [b]7[/b], choosing to take a String on the awestruck pilot and to remove Talon’s spear from immediate use. It’s the mech herself that’s the sword, after all…]